SUMMARY OF THE WEEK’S ANNOUNCEMENTS

In light of the recent developments around COVID-19 and the uncertainty we are all facing day to day, we felt it important to provide you a summary of this week’s announcements and their current status.

JOBKEEPER PAYMENTS

The JobKeeper Wage subsidy was announced by the Federal Government, providing access to a fortnightly wage subsidy of $1,500 per employee to assist eligible employers and sole traders to retain staff, from 30 March 2020 for a maximum of 6 months.

We are currently awaiting legislation for this announcement, expected to be put to parliament on Wednesday 8 April. In the interim we recommend you do not advise staff of any benefits under this initiative until your eligibility is confirmed.

Once we have reviewed the legislation we will be in touch to discuss your eligibility to access this initiative.

EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND CARE RELIEF PACKAGE

Designed to give families fee relief while assisting child care services to remain open, the package scraps the current childcare rebate system temporarily. The government will instead make weekly payments directly to centres based on February 2020 enrolments, until the end of the 2019-20 financial year, and families will not be charged.

If you have recently ceased enrolment for your children, the government is encouraging you to re-enrol.

Again legislation for this announcement has not yet been released.

We know this is a challenging time for all business owners, we remind you that we are here to help you navigate this uncertain period.

Sarah, Glenn, Ray and the team at SPA.